JAN SWAFFORD received degrees from Harvard and the Yale School of Music and is the author of Charles Ives: A Life with Music, which was a finalist for the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography, won the PENWinship Award, and was hailed by Newsweek as "one of the best biographies in recent memory." He is also the author of The Vintage Guide to Classical Music and a featured commentator on NPR's Performance Today. An award-winning composer whose work has been widely performed by ensembles here and abroad, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The most readable and comprehensive guide to enjoying over five hundred years of classical music -- from Gregorian chants, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Johannes Brahms, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, and beyond.

The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is a lively -- and opinionated -- musical history and an... Read more